Who still uses a pay phone? This victim did

Updated 11:03 am, Wednesday, April 4, 2012

About 500,000 pay phones still existed in 2009, down from 2.1 million in 1999, according to a 2010 Federal Communications Commission "Trends in Telephone Service" report.

About 500,000 pay phones still existed in 2009, down from 2.1 million in 1999, according to a 2010 Federal Communications Commission "Trends in Telephone Service" report.

Photo: Getty Images

Who still uses a pay phone? This victim did

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Remember the last time you used a pay phone? Or even saw one?

Thanks to a weather-worn pay phone in the Central District, the victim in a knife attack late Monday quickly called 911 from the intersection of East Cherry Street and Martin Luther King Jr. Way South, according to a Seattle police report.

The victim, 40, was approached by another man who asked for money. When the victim said he had no change, the man lunged at him with a knife. The victim threw out his hands to defend himself and suffered a 3-inch gash to his palm, police say.

The attacker fled. The victim "was then able to call 911 from a payphone and East Precinct officers and Seattle Fire responded," according to the police department's online blotter. Police were called about 11:40 p.m.

Police say the victim was taken to Harborview Medical Center and treated. Officers searched the area with help from a K-9 unit but were unable to find a suspect.

Finding another public pay phone nearby probably would have been difficult, too. Since almost everyone carries a cell phone these days, phone booths have become obsolete. Pay phones that once stood in parks or outside gas stations and shopping centers have been removed or sold.

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Between 1999 and 2009, the number of pay phones in the U.S. dropped from 2.1 million to 500,000, according to a 2010 Federal Communications Commission "Trends in Telephone Service" report.

In Washington state, there were 11,544 in 2009, down from about 34,000 in 2002, according to the report.

The pay phone used Monday stands outside a small deli, along the street. A phone book in a faded plastic cover dangles from the bottom.

"We used to respond to 911 hang-ups from pay phones all the time," Seattle police spokesman Mark Jamieson said Tuesday. People just walking by or feeling suicidal would call 911 and leave the phone off the hook, he said.

"But there aren't as many anymore. The phone companies are slowly yanking them out and people don't use them as much," he said. "But if they don't have a cell phone, I think it's a viable option. But, I would agree there are less calls from pay phones because there are less of them."

It's unclear whether the victim in Monday's attack had a personal cell phone.

Police data show that people still use them in an emergency. In 2011, Seattle police fielded 15,000 emergency calls from pay phones. But that's only 3 percent of the 522,960 emergency calls last year to the Police Department's dispatch center.

According to the most recent FCC data, there are about 270 million wireless phone subscribers in the U.S. It's much more likely in today's world that a witness to a crime would reach for a cell phone rather than look for a phone booth.

But as the American Public Communications Council, a pay phone industry group, notes, low-income people and the homeless are most affected by the dwindling numbers of pay phones in public areas.

And pay phones can still be handy when a disaster like a hurricane disables cell towers. Public safety is among the reasons that some states enacted public interest laws a few years ago to preserve pay phones areas where phones companies planned to disconnect them.

Meanwhile, police still are looking for a suspect in Monday's knifing. The attacker was described as black, in his 30s, about 5 feet 8, 180 pounds with short hair. He wore a gray sweater and red sweatpants, police said.